Book of Negros, by Lawrence Hill ****

This novel is published as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, and appears in Canada as The Book of Negroes in Canada.

Abducted as an 11-year-old child from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea in a coffle - a string of slaves - Aminata Diallo is sent to live as a slave in South Carolina. But years later, she forges her way to freedom, serving the British in the Revolutionary War and registering her name in the historic "Book of Negroes". This book, an actual document, provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed Loyalist slaves who requested permission to leave the US for resettlement in Nova Scotia, only to find that the haven they sought was steeped in an oppression all of its own. Aminata's eventual return to Sierra Leone - passing ships carrying thousands of slaves bound for America - is an engrossing account of an obscure but important chapter in history that saw 1,200 former slaves embark on a harrowing back-to-Africa odyssey.

This one took me a couple of weeks to work through.  It was a good story, though, telling the life story of a woman (girl) who is stolen from her African village at 11 and taken to the States to be a slave.  It held my attention throughout  - at time disturbing, but never too graphic.  The first half reminded me quite a bit of the book "Sacajawea" by A Waldo, which I read many, many years ago.

Secret Daughter, by Shilpi Somaya Gowda****

On the eve of the monsoons, in a remote Indian village, Kavita gives birth to Asha. But in a culture that favours sons, the only way for Kavita to save her newborn daughter's life is to give her away. It is a decision that will haunt her and her husband for the rest of their lives, even after the arrival of their cherished son. Halfway around the globe, Somer, an American doctor, decides to adopt a child after making the wrenching discovery that she will never have one of her own. When she and her husband Krishnan see a photo of baby Asha from a Mumbai orphanage, they are overwhelmed with emotion for her. Somer knows life will change with the adoption, but is convinced that the love they already feel will overcome all obstacles. Interweaving the stories of Kavita, Somer, and Asha, "Secret Daughter" poignantly explores issues of culture and belonging. Moving between two worlds and two families, one struggling to survive in the fetid slums of Mumbai, the other grappling to forge a cohesive family despite their diverging cultural identities, this powerful debut novel marks the arrival of a fresh talent poised for great success.

Secret Daughter is a story that mostly revolves around three women - an Indian woman who has to give up her daughter, an American Woman who adopts her daughter from India and the baby who is born in India, raised in America and goes back to get to know her family and the culture.  (Her father immigrated from India to America before she was born.)  This was not a gripping story that I struggled to put down, but I thought it was a good solid book.  I liked the descriptions of India and its culture, and I thought the author did a good job of describing the difficulties between mother and child... or really, the difficulties for anybody trying to keep their family together. I enjoyed it.

Born to Die - Lisa Jackson **

The resemblance between Dr. Kacey Lambert and B-movie actress Shelly Bonaventure is a standing joke in the town of Grizzly Falls, Montana. So much so, that Kacey is momentarily shocked to read about the fading starlet’s death. Still, it’s not as if there was any real connection between them. And when a fatally injured jogger who also bears a striking similarity to Kacey is rushed into the ER days later, Kacey is ready to rule it another sad, strange accident. Detective Selena Alvarez suspects otherwise. An autopsy confirms that the jogger had traces of poison in her blood at the time of her death. Selena and her partner, Regan Pescoli, can find no motive for the murder. But Kacey has started to notice ties between the dead women’s lives and her own—all close in age, born within miles of each other—and all with ties to the man Kacey has just begun seeing, single father Trace O’Halleran. Now, with more look-alikes dying, Kacey must question her judgment, her safety—and everything she’s ever believed about her past. The deeper Kacey digs, the more reason she has to fear. The body count is rising, the killer is getting bolder and more brutal. And Kacey knows it’s only a matter of time before hers is the next name on a list of those who were born to die…

I think the only way this book could be described would be far fetched.  Lisa Jackson writes good mysteries, but she seemed to have been digging through the dregs to come up with this plot.  A bunch of women, the biological results of artificial insemination, start dying.  The clinic where they came from is long gone, but somehow somebody has tracked down babies who resulted in sperm donations from the same man 30 years ago and is killing them.  Most of them don't even know that they came from artificial insemination, and yet he somehow tracks them down... and they're all pretty much in the same city.

Jackson writes engaging stories.  Her main characters still drew me in, but the plot and the supporting characters were too unbelievable for me to really get into the story.  Finally, the ending was laughable, it was so unlikely.  I'm normally a Lisa Jackson fan, but this one was a bomb.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards ***

This stunning novel begins on a winter night in 1964, when a blizzard forces Dr. David Henry to deliver his own twins.
His son, born first, is perfectly healthy, but the doctor immediately recognizes that his daughter has Down syndrome. For motives he tells himself are good, he makes a split-second decision that will haunt all their lives forever. He asks his nurse, Caroline, to take the baby away to an institution. Instead, she disappears into another city to raise the child as her own. Compulsively readable and deeply moving, The Memory Keeper's Daughter is a brilliantly crafted story of parallel lives, familial secrets, and the redemptive power of love.

My first mistake with the novel was to watch the movie before reading the book. I don't generally like reading books after I've seen the movie based off of them because the differences stand out too much to me. I think it distracts from the story when you're expecting one thing and read something else.

Starting out, having seen the movie (which wasn't very good)I had trouble getting into this book. It was slow reading, but I would say that I started enjoying it more at about the half way point, when it started to vary significantly from the story line in the movie. It was good for a little while, and then the end was really slow. Truth is, I felt like the story was over about 40 pages before the end of the book. Eventually, I ended up quitting about 10 pages before the last page. I don't think it was a bad story, just not great. And I really think my impression of it was hampered by the less than stellar movie.

Old Dogs Are the Best Dogs, by Gene Weingarten and Michael S. Williamson *****

This book is not a novel. It's a cross between a picture book and a collection of (very) short stories. I ordered it a few weeks ago, while feeling sentimental and kind of sad that my own pup is becoming an old man.

Each page has a black and white shot of an old dog, opposite of a description, tidbit, antic or memory from when they were younger.  Some make you laugh, others make you cry.

After my basement flooded last night, it was exactly what I needed. I was too stressed to sleep, so I whipped through it in the night. It's an easy - if emotional - read that any dog lover will want to read over and over. Loved it. Friends be forewarned: I will be giving it as gifts.

Rainwater, by Sandra Brown ****

Ella Barron is determined that even the ravages of the Dust Bowl will not affect the well-ordered life she has built for herself and her special child, Solly, who lives in a world of his own that even she can’t enter. Aware that he evokes pity and distrust, Ella holds herself aloof from her small community, but her new boarder, David Rainwater, comes into her life— and changes it forever. As economic desperation creates bitter social unrest in the town and surrounding farms, Ella finds herself relying on Mr. Rainwater’s soft-spoken advice and the steely resolve of his convictions. But tensions escalate in the summer heat, until one violent night everything they believe in will be put to the ultimate test.

This was not your typical Sandra Brown novel. The focus was about the difficulties of the times, not the romance between the two main characters. Actually, I was still wondering if she'd have them get together well into the book. I found it reminiscent of Bridges of Madison County, or a Nicholas Sparks novel... not what you'd call great literature, but a quick easy read. I liked it. It was a welcome change, and I hope she writes more like this.

The Lincoln Lawyer, by Michael Connelly ****

Veteran bestseller Connelly enters the crowded legal thriller field with flash and panache. Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller regularly represents lowlifes, but he's no slickster trolling for loopholes in the ethics laws. He's haunted by how he mishandled the case of (probably innocent) Jesus Menendez, and, though twice divorced, he's on good terms with his ex-wives; one of them manages his office, and the other, an ambitious assistant DA, occasionally tumbles back into bed with him. When Mickey signs on to defend young real estate agent Louis Roulet against charges of assault, he can't help seeing dollar signs: Roulet's imperious mother will spend any amount to prove her beloved son's innocence. But probing the details of the case, Mickey and private investigator Raul Levin dig up a far darker picture of Roulet's personality and his past. Levin's murder and a new connection to the Menendez case make Mickey wonder if he's in over his head, and his defense of Roulet becomes a question of morality as well as a test of his own survival. After Connelly spends the book's first half involving the reader in Mickey's complex world, he thrusts his hero in the middle of two high-stakes duels, against the state and his own client, for heart-stopping twists and topflight storytelling.

This was one of the best mysteries that I've read yet.  It had all sorts of twists and turns, and took me off guard numerous times.  Very well written.